Katsudon wa hito o shiawase ni suru

Katsudon wa hito o shiawase ni suru (カツ丼は人を幸せにする)

⭐⭐

🐷 Katsudon / 📍 Suitengumae/Kanda/Gotanda/Nishi-Azabu/Akasaka

📓 Visits: 5 (2022-2024)

Imitation is the best form of flattery and owner Ryutaro made no secret of the fact he got his inspiration for "Katsudon makes you happy" from Zuicho (review here), which has the highest Tabelog rating of any restaurant in Japan serving just katsudon.  The original restaurant opened in Suitengumae in February 2022 and was an immediate success and there are now four more branches.

Up until 29th April 2024 this was the best katusdon restaurant in Tokyo.  Compared with Zuicho the katsu thicker, the pork more flavourful and better quality, the sauce better and the egg richer.  The atmosphere was better (all the staff upbeat), the queues shorter at peak times and since Zuicho raised its prices by a whopping 50% it was cheaper.  What happened since then?  They changed the menu.  Instead of the usual queue outside I was struck, on this most recent and last visit, by a cabinet outside of shokuhin sampuru not with bowls of katsudon on the top row but tonkatsu teishoku.  It took me 30 seconds to confirm they do indeed still serve katsudon and this was indeed the same restaurant I'd been going to for over two years and it hadn't been taken over by some charlatan (though after I was done eating, it might as well have been).  The restaurant is now cashless and you're supposed to order from your smartphone via a LINE app (which thankfully is in English as well) but if you can't or won't the staff can take your order from a Japanese-only menu.  The cheapest katsudon is now JPY 1,518.  I went for this plus one ebi-fry on the side.

Food arrived after about eight minutes.  The pork had decent flavour with the tare but, as expected from a rosu katsu, a lot of fat.  Before there was very little fat for a rosu but they've changed the pork and cuts they use.  If you want less fat you'd have to order the hire katsudon now.  The other problem was everything was greasy.  The katsu was greasy.  The tamago was greasy and too sweet and too large (if I wanted a sweet omelette I could have stayed at home).  And the ebi fry was greasy and expensive at 528 yen.

This katsudon did not make me happy and it was easily the most disappointing meal of 2024 so far.  Why did they have to screw it up?

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1302/A130204/13267984/ (Nihonbashi-kakigaracho)
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1310/A131002/13276206/ (Kanda)
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1316/A131603/13278075/ (Gotanda)
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13276072/ (Nishi-Azabu - open till 5am!)
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1308/A130801/13289208/ (Akasaka)

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐ 2.9 (was 4.1)

📱 Booking: No bookings.

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